How to mention famous thinkers in a college essay

RReaders in Stanford's admissions office look for evidence of a mature mind, and one of the clearest places to find it is in how a student handles other people's ideas. A student writing a daring why-college essay might begin with Melville, who called a whaling ship his Yale College and his Harvard, then bring in the film character who mocks an expensive degree as an education you could get from library late fees. Then she pushes back with Montaigne, who valued rubbing one's wits against minds from all over the world, and observes that books cannot answer back.

In a few lines she has convened a small seminar on what education is for, and taken a side. Most students who try something similar produce a parade of famous names instead.